Skullotron

The Skullotron is the "Steam-powered" ^{[Citation required]} Winnitron machine. It contains a variety of arcade-style games wrapped up in a simple and fun UI.

Playing the Skullotron

Press the button on the PC in the back. Wait for it to fully finish booting up (takes about a minute or two! Thanks hard drives!), then the Winnitron Launcher will present itself for playing. Select a game and play!

Fancy Binds

For convenience, I've added a few binds to allow you to do basic actions on the Skullotron. In these docs, I refer to "P1W" or "P2W", which are the white buttons above the Player 1 controls and Player 2 controls accordingly. B1: Button 1 (left button on a player's controls), B2: Button 2 (Right button on a player's controls). Menu button: The lone button to left of P1's controls.

Volume Controls

P2W + P1 up/down

Mouse mode

P1W + P2W

P1 joystick will move the cursor

P1B1 is left mouse button

P1B2 is right mouse button

The menu button will return controls back to regular Winnitron

Force Restart

P2W + Menu

The Winnitron Launcher will fully restart. Takes only a few seconds after the first launch. Use when any games are stuck or the Winnitron launcher itself crashes.

Currently added games

Games come in two catagories: Games that have been there prior to the reformat ("Legacy Skullotron") and new games, by Sksp members ("Homemade Skulls") or the Winnipeg Game Collective ("Winnipeg Game Collective")

This list is still work-in-progress

Legacy Skullotron

0space

A duel in a gravity-defying arena, fight against a friend with simple weapons

Homemade Skulls

Dueling Arkanoid

A fast and chaotic duel between you and the aliens in a pong / Arkanoid fusion.

This game is in active development. There's no skullotron release yet, but is planned to be added soon!

Made by Felicia

Winnipeg Game Collective

No WGC members have submitted games yet

Creating Games for the Skullotron

Games for the Skullotron are simply just windows games with a really weird keyboard layout. You can use any game engine (or none at all if you're feeling adventurous!) as long as you follow these requirements:

Game Requirements

• You must compile an x86-compatible Windows binary of your game (preferably x86_64 / 64-bit version)
• Your game must open into fullscreen
• Your game must have no external launcher, and should automatically present you the title screen of the game on launch. If you're adapting a Unity game, ensure that the game does not present you with a resolution selection dialog upon launch.
• The game must use the following controls:
  • ESC closes the game (or shows a pause menu that has the option to close a game)

Controls

Player	Movement	Button 1	Button 2
1	Arrow Keys	.	/
2	WASD	`	1

• Your game files must include a file named `winnitron_metadata.json`, with the following data

{
  "title":"Your Game", 
  "min_players":"1", 
  "max_players":"2", 
  "executable":"game.exe", 
  "legacy_controls":"false", 
  "image_url":"gamepreview.png",
  "slug":"yourgame"
}

• • Title: The exact name that will be shown in the launcher
  • executable: The exe file that the launcher will start
  • legacy_controls: If you're using the keybindings above, you can safely keep this as false
  • image_url: The path to a preview image of your game. It should be a screenshot of gameplay or promotional art. Avoid adding text to this screenshot since it's shown in the background and the title of the game will be shown already in the launcher.
  • slug: An ID of your game, identifying it if updates are ever needed. It should be a snake_case representation of your title

System Maintainance

These are bits on how to change and update the Skullotron over time. The Winnitron software itself is no longer in active development, but games can always easily be added.

Adding Attract Screens

The Winnitron software will automatically start playing a video or display some images if the launcher is idle for a few seconds. You can use this space to add Skullspace promotional material, game tips, or for certain events, to add custom messages for patrons.

To add attract screens, add a PNG or MP4 file into kbd>/home/skullotron/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles/data/bottles/bottles/winnitron_138/drive_c/WINNITRON_UserData/Attract. PNG files will be overlayed over the trippy spinning skull featured on the Skullspace Canteen. Videos will simply be played fullscreen

Adding Games

An automated script will be added soon to validate and copy the game folders from a USB drive inserted into the computer.

If it's a Skullspace-made game, copy the folder containing all game files & winnitron metadata into /home/skullotron/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles/data/bottles/bottles/winnitron_138/drive_c/WINNITRON_UserData/Playlists/Homemade Skulls. The folder should look like so:

Playlists

| Homemade Skulls

| | YourNewSkullspaceGame

| | | game.exe

| | | gamepreview.png

| | | winnitron_metadata.json

| | | <other files the game needs to run>

The game will automatically find and be able to play your game

Troubleshooting

Winnitron hangs on "Compiling games" on startup

Your winnitron_metadata.json might be broken or nonexistent. Create it with the sample

Software setup

The system is running Hyprland on Arch with a minimal config to ensure nothing can be run during game demos. It also sets things to automatically fullscreen upon game launch.

The games are running through xwayland.

The button inputs are being translated using AntimicroX.

For maintenance, connect a keyboard, switch to another tty, and use `root` account with usual password. `skullotron` is the account that is running the games themselves, and it has no password. Sudo has not been configured.